The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) aims to auction a total of 10 GW of wind power by 2019 through reverse bidding in order to bring the country closer to ids wind target. In 2016, India’s onshore wind capacity stood at 29 GW and country is aiming to reach 60 GW by 2022.

October 2017 auction was the second wind auction round held in India on the national level. The first auction was finalised in February 2017 were 1 GW of capacity was awarded to 4 companies at Rs 3.46/kWh price (USD 53.6/MWh). The second auction brought prices 24% lower in comparison to the earlier round, with the lowest bids reaching Rs 2.64/kWh price (USD 40.0/MWh) for 500 MW capacity. The remaining 500 MW capacity was contracted at Rs 2.65/kWh (USD 41/MWh).

These results were also lower than wind auction prices achieved three months earlier in Tamil Nadu state auction were Rs 3.42/kWh (USD 53/MWh) price was found for 200 MW capacity.

Auction organised by: Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) (Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited) (state-run organisation) on behalf of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India.Auction territorial scope: nationalCapacity auctioned: 1 GWTechnology: onshore wind onlyAuction announced: May 2017; opened on: 4 October, auction concluded on: 5 October 2017Number of bids submitted: 12 bids for a cumulative capacity of 2.9 GW of which 9 bids were shortlisted for an electronic reverse auction.Winners: selected based on the lowest price offered.Lowest price achieved: Rs 2.64/kWh (USD 40.9/MWh)Deadline for projects commissioning: 18 months from when winners receive letters of award (LoA) from SECI. Those should be issued in December 2017. This puts scheduled commissioning date for summer 2019. PPA must be signed within 6 months from LoA reception.Location of the projects: Developers are free to choose location for their projectsOfftaker: SECI signs the PPAs with developers.Contracts duration: 25 years starting from a commercial operation of the projectGrid connection: The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission clarified that auction winners will not receive any preference in connectivity to the transmission network. Initially, this was unclear and for this reason the auction was delayed by few months to clarify this aspect. Responsibility of securing grid connection lies solely on the project developer. Costs resulting from connecting wind project to the grid also lie on the developer as well as the maintenance of the transmission system up to the closest interconnection.